Wi-Fi Direct: Wi-Fi P2P

Connection
INTRODUCTION
• Wi-Fi direct is new technology
▫ enhancing direct device to device communication without
requiring a wireless access point.

• Wi-Fi direct builds upon the successful IEEE 802.11 infrastructure

mode
▫ lets devices negotiate who will take over the AP-like
functionalities.
TECHNICAL OVERVIEW
• In a typical Wi-Fi network, client scans and associate to wireless
networks available, which are created and announced by Access
Points (AP).

• Wi-Fi Direct is that these roles are specified as dynamic,

▫ hence a Wi-Fi Direct device has to implement both the role of a client
and the role of an AP.

• These roles are therefore logical roles that could even be executed
simultaneously by the same device, this type of operation is called
Concurrent mode.
 ARCHITECTURE
• Wi-Fi direct device communicate by establishing P2P group.

• The device implementing AP-like functionality in P2P group is referred

to as the P2P Group Owner(P2P GO), and device acting as client are
known as P2P clients.

• Once P2P group is established, other P2P clients can join the group as
in a traditional Wi-Fi network.
• When the device act as both as P2P client and as P2P GO
▫ the device will typically alternate between the two roles by time-sharing the
Wi-Fi interface

• Like a traditional AP, a P2P GO announces itself through beacons, and

has to support power saving for its associated clients.
Wi-Fi Direct Setup: Scenario 1
Wi-Fi Direct Setup: Scenario 2
• Only the P2P GO is allowed to cross-connect the devices in its P2P
group to an external network.

• Wi-Fi direct does not allow transferring the role of P2P GO within
the group.

• If P2P GO leaves the P2P group then the group is break down, and
has to re-established.
GROUP FORMATION
• Three types of group formation techniques
 Standard
 Autonomous
 Persistent
• Group Formation procedure involves two phases-
 Determination of P2P Group owner
 Negotiated - Two P2P devices negotiate for P2P group owner
based on desire/capabilities to be a P2P GO.
 Selected - P2P group Owner role established at formation or at
an application level
 Provisioning of P2P Group
 Establishment of P2P group session using appropriate
credentials
 Using Wi-Fi simple configuration to exchange credentials.
 GROUP FORMATION: Standard
• In this case the P2P device have to discover each other, and then
negotiate which device will act as P2P GO.
• Its start by performing a traditional Wi-Fi scan, by means of which they
can discover existent groups and Wi-Fi network.

• To prevent conflicts when two devices declare the same GO Intent, a tie-
breaker bit is included in the GO Negotiation Request, which is randomly
set every time a GO Negotiation Request is sent.
 GROUP FORMATION: Standard
• Discovery algorithm: P2p device selects one of the social channels (2.4
GHz– ch-1, 6, 11)
• Two state – (a) search – sends Probe request
▫

• (b) listen----listens for probe request ---- sends Probe response

• Each state ---------- 100 ms to 300 ms
▫ Tradeoff (discovery time with throughput, energy)
 GROUP FORMATION: Standard
• Select GO----GO negotiation phase
• Three way handshake (request/response/confirmation)
• Selects GO and channel (2.4Ghz, 5Ghz)
• P2p device sends a numerical value --- GO Intent
▫ Highest value

• To prevent conflicts when two devices declare the same GO Intent, a tie-
breaker bit is included in the GO Negotiation Request,
• Randomly set every time a GO Negotiation Request is sent.
GROUP FORMATION: Autonomous

• A P2P device may autonomously create a P2P group,

▫ it immediately becomes the P2P GO, by sitting on a channel and starting
a beacon.

• Other devices can discover the established group using traditional

scanning mechanisms.
• As compared to previous case, the discovery phase is simplified
▫ the device establishing the group does not alternate between states, and
indeed no GO negotiation phase is required.
GROUP FORMATION: Persistent

• In this process, P2P device can declare a group as persistent, by

using flag in the P2P capabilities attribute present in beacon frames.

• After the discovery phase, if a P2P device recognizes to have formed

a persistent group with the corresponding peer in the past, any of
the two P2P devices can use the Invitation Procedure to quickly re-
instantiate the group.
POWER SAVING
• Wifi provides power saving of p2p clients
▫ Power management bit
 Client goes to sleep
▫ No option for power saving for AP
• Wi-Fi Direct defines two new power saving mechanisms:
 Opportunistic Power Save
 Notice of Absence
POWER SAVING: Opportunistic Power Save
• P2p clients can move to sleep state
• Allows a P2P GO to save power when all its associated clients are
sleeping.
• The P2P Group Owner can only save power when all its clients are
sleeping.
 POWER SAVING: Opportunistic Power Save
Target Beacon Transmission Time Traffic indicator map
POWER SAVING: Notice of Absence
• This protocol (NoA) allows a P2P GO to announce time intervals,
referred to as absence periods, where P2P Clients are not allowed to
access the channel.---Beacons, probe response
• P2P GO defines a NoA schedule using four parameters:
 Duration that specifies the length of each absence period
 Interval that specifies the time between consecutive absence
periods
Time that specifies the start time of the first absence period
after the current Beacon frame
Count that specifies how many absence periods will be
scheduled during the current NoA schedule.
SECURITY
• Wi-Fi Direct devices are required to implement Wi-Fi Protected
Setup (WPS) to support a secure connection with minimal user
intervention.
• WPS allows establishing a secure connection by introducing a PIN in
the P2P Client, or pushing a button in the two P2P Devices.
• Following WPS terminology, the P2P GO is required to implement an
internal Registrar, and the P2P Client is required to implement an
Enrollee.
• The operation of WPS is composed of two parts.
• In the first part, the internal Registrar is in charge of generating
and issuing the network credentials, i.e., security keys, to the Enrollee
• In the second part, the Enrollee (P2P Client) disassociates and
reconnects using its new authentication credentials.
Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES)-CCMP as cipher,

Randomly generated Pre-Shared

Key (PSK) for mutual
authentication
Service discovery protocol
Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) protocol

• It may be a single or multiple GAS Initial Request and

Response action frame exchange.
• The requesting P2P Device transmits one or more GAS Initial
Request frames.
• A target P2P Device that supports Service Discovery responds
with one or more GAS Initial Response frames.

• The Service Discovery procedure can be used to find:

A list of all services offered by a P2P Device
Information about a single service offered by a P2P Device
Information about multiple services offered by a P2P Device
If there has been a change in the services offered by a P2P
Device
Service discovery protocol
Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) protocol
Address configuration
CONCLUSIONS
• Wi-Fi alliance has recently developed the Wi-Fi Direct technology
that builds upon the Wi-Fi infrastructure mode to enable direct
device to device connectivity.

• Thorough overview of the novel technical features specified in Wi-Fi

Direct, following by the group formation, and other performance
analysis such as power saving and security in this device.

• The NoA protocol could also be re-used to virtualizes the roles of

P2P GO/Client over multiple concurrent P2P Groups.

• Concurrent operation together with dynamic nature of the P2P

GO/Client roles could be used to improve performance in dense
environments, for instance by means of dynamic relays.